1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a motor vehicle low beam and bending light headlamp. The invention also relates to a vehicle equipped with such a headlamp.
2. Description of the Related Art
The field of the invention is, generally, that of motor vehicle headlamps. In this field, various types of headlamp devices are known, which primarily include:
parking lights of low intensity and low range;
dipped or low beam lights of higher intensity and of a range on the road approaching 70 meters, which are mainly used at night and the light beam distribution of which is such that it is possible not to dazzle the driver of an oncoming vehicle;
long range high beam lights, the zone of vision of which on the road is near to 200 meters, and which must be turned off when passing another vehicle in order not to dazzle its driver;
fog-lights; and
dual-mode headlamps, which combine the functions of dipped lights and long range lights.
However, traditional headlamp devices which have just been described, more particularly high beam long range lights, produce light beams which are adaptable when these headlamp devices are used under certain conditions. Thus, a driver is sometimes confronted with situations in which the light beam produced by the low beam lights of his/her vehicle in their traditional configuration could be orientated and distributed in a better way to approach such situations; traditional configuration of a low beam type device is understood to mean the configuration which they are in when they do not have advanced functions, certain examples of which will be mentioned below.
For example, when a vehicle approaches a bend, the headlamps continue to illuminate straight in front of them whereas it would be more sensible to orientate the light beam in the direction of the bend being negotiated.
For this purpose, in addition to the principal functions of traditional, in particular low beam and high beam headlamps, various improvements have gradually appeared. Thus, the development has been seen of elaborate functions, or advanced functions, which include in particular DBL (dynamic bending light) headlamps, here also called headlamps with a bending light function, which enable the orientation of a light beam produced by a light source to be modified, so that when the vehicle approaches a bend, the road is illuminated in an optimum way.
Turning headlamps are understood to mean, in particular, headlamps configured to be able to turn.
On the other hand, the vehicle is also equipped with a system to detect obstacles. This can involve projecting a motif or extracting an object in an image of a camera-based system enabling headlights of oncoming vehicles to be detected.
If the vehicle is equipped with an automatic switching unit between the high beam and low beam lighting modes, and if the high beam lighting mode is in an active state, the camera has a second function: to switch off the high beam lighting mode when a car is detected on the road so as not to dazzle the driver.
The automatic switching systems between the high beam and low beam lighting modes use a camera with a fixed field of view and position. Thus, in certain situations, the oncoming vehicle is unable to appear in the field of view of the camera and therefore cannot to be detected and even so can already be in the high beam of the vehicle equipped with automatic switching between low and high beam. This results in a potential situation of dazzling the driver of the oncoming vehicle. This phenomenon can be worsened by the presence on the vehicle of a DBL bending light function.
When the DBL bending light function is in a default state, the beam of the camera and that of the headlamps essentially cover the same field. A default state is understood to mean the configuration which the headlamps are in when no bend in the road is detected. Obviously, if the DBL function makes the high beams of the headlamps turn after a bend is detected, the beam of the camera, which is fixed and always parallel to the vehicle's direction of travel, and the turning beam of the headlamps diverge from one another, likely to dazzle the drivers of oncoming vehicles since the camera cannot detect certain obstacles.
There is, therefore, a need to provide a system and method for controlling a headlight.